Gagik Minasyan: Deauville statement is Armenian diplomacy's success

PanARMENIAN.Net - The member of a ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Gagik Minasyan believes the Deauville statement by OSCE MG co-chairs to be a success of the Armenian diplomacy. “If in past, the OSCE MG co-chairs addressed their urge for Karabakh conflict settlement to Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Deauville statement was addressed to conflicting parties. I believe this change to be of utmost importance,” the parliamentarian said, noting that the statement crashes Azeri concept that there are two conflicting parties and not considering Karabakh in the issue.

Mr. Minasyan characterized the presidents' statement that an attempt at a new war would be condemned by the international community as another important fact, as well as the urge “to prepare their people for peace, not war.”

The leaders of the United States, France and Russia called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to move toward a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

"We...are convinced that it is time for the sides in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh to take a decisive step toward a peaceful resolution (of the conflict)," said a joint statement by Presidents Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev.

"We firmly call on the leaders of the sides to prepare their people for peace, not war," the statement said. "We call on the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to demonstrate political will and finalize...the basic principles (of a peace agreement) during the forthcoming summit in June."

The Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are slated to meet in June in the Russian city of Kazan, the next in a series of trilateral meetings on the conflict.